For the summer months, Harvey Nichols is inviting customers to experience fragrance in a 360-degree immersive environment, with an exhibition called “Something in the Air.” The exhibition will run until Aug. 27 and feature fragrances from Memo Paris, Experimental Perfume Club, Serge Lutens and Widian.
“In the summer we have a lot of international customers coming into the store, so this is a really good opportunity to show the range of fragrances that we have,” said Deb Bee, creative and marketing director of Harvey Nichols.
Situated on the fifth floor, the installation created by Architecture Social Club invites visitors into a dark room with changing light and scented rings of smoke.
A different fragrance will be emitted every two weeks. Memo Paris will be taking over the opening two weeks with a set of fragrances exclusive to Harvey Nichols, including London Tweed, Siberian Golden Wood and Rose Paris Rose.
Each brand will also take over the space outside the installation. Memo Paris has hung floral arrangements on the walls and snaked vines around perfume bottles, which are displayed on white shelving units.
“Fragrance has historically been quite democratic, discount and gray-market-driven, but this really gives customers a unique way of experiencing it and elevates the category,” said Daniela Rinaldi, co-chief operating officer of Harvey Nichols.
Bee and Rinaldi worked closely with the four brands to make sure the right concentration of the scent will be emitted from the smoke rings. “We didn’t want to over-concentrate them to make sure it was not overpowering,” said Bee.
Emmanuelle Moeglin, founder of Experimental Perfume Club, is creating a scent for the installation. “It’s essentially taking two of our bestsellers, which are the Jasmine Osmanthus and the Amber, and mixing them together to create a new fragrance that has lightness and depth at the same time,” she said.
Moeglin will merchandise the space to mimic a laboratory complete with beakers, and ingredients for customers to play with. “We’re essentially like a perfume lab or a fragrance workshop, so we want to bring that part of our brand to the Harvey Nichols customer,” she said, echoing Bee’s mission.
“I think people want to have fun when they are shopping, but to experience it this way makes people want to come back and hopefully each time the fragrance changes, they’ll want to experience it all over again, because where else can you stand between two smoke guns?” Bee said.
Harvey Nichols Brings In Vapor Machines, Scented Smoke Rings in Fragrance Installation